1. Ethnic Minorities in Mexico

The end of a dream

Mexico woke up from a dream on January the 1st this year. A country that was about to become a member of the so-called 'First World' was forced to acknowledge, and remember, its 'Third World' reality, a reality from which some mexicans had averted their eyes. On the opening day of the Free Trade Agreement signed with the US and Canada exploited indigenous people of Chiapas were declaring war to the mexican government. The modern, democratic, middle-class society Mexico's rulers and friends in Washington want it to be was still unreachable.

Who are them?

Indigenous population ranges between 20 and 30 Millions in Latin America. Only in Mexico they they account for 20% of the population.

Indigenous population live predominantly in isolated forest areas far from urban centres. It is very common that they do not have lands and so they find it diffciult to receive financial credit.

Indigenous population in Latin America have been highly influenced by the predominant culture. Nevertheless, they keep their own ethnic identity, try alternatively forms of organization and own political representation., keep certain essential features of their original culture which have survived for almost four centuries.

They speak their own languages, respect dialect forms, practice some religious rituals, they interpret a cosmovision opposed to western values and keep certain norms of life and autochthonous behaviours. Briefly they express and live own cultural expressions.

 

The previous context

The Chiapas rebellion was the most announced rebellion in Mexican history. It was a surprise only for those who think that economic development is only a matter of economic growth but not one of culture, national project, and belonging to a society which grants identity, dignity and ethical values. The rebellion, even if takes up the ideals of the mexican revolution, it points towards the struggle for democracy in a country where nowadays democracy is more than ever at stake.

Indeed the problem in Chiapas is one of poverty and oppression but it focuses rather on inequity and the loss of a way of life, of a way of survival.

Structural Factors:

a) The Mexican Revolution ideals -the first social revolution of this century- did not succeed in Chiapas. This has led to a culture of exclusion. It has been a constant practice of discrimination, physical abuse and insult towards the indigenous population. Rosario Castellanos talks about the right of the rich owners to rape indigenous young girls. No wonder the rebellion claims dignity, respect and recognition.

b) Migration coming from Guatemala and other South American countries.

c) It is very likely that an external group helped them to organize.

d) The indigenous population are the poorest among the poor. Poverty has become unbearable in a region where social and economic progress never shows as in other parts of the country. When everything has been tried, as they clearly declared, there was no option than a violent rebellion.

e) There is illiteracy, lack of public services (water, drainage, electricity). Schools are in a very bad condition. Statistics and census usually do not show particular data from the indigenous population. However, some figures show that 82% of the indigenous population of Guatemala is illiterate. Usually educational figures in terms of illiteracy, achievement rates, drop-outs are higher among indigenous population than among non-indigenous population. What happens in Mexico?

f) Ethnic groups do not have any alternatives or perspectives for social, economic or educational participation. Youngsters lack any perspectives in life not any chances to survive in extreme poverty conditions.

g) Indigenous groups all over, those in Chiapas are not the exception, are looking for autonomy. Cultural existence becomes subordinated to the existence of autonomy. What indigenous groups in Chiapas are demanding is the right to exist.

h) The political rights of ethnic groups and the respect for their vote have been continuously violated. People are usually forced to vote for the official party.

i) Socioeconomic and political demands have been ignored.

j) Local authorities are forced upon.

k) Grass-roots organizations have been blocked.

l) Land has been taken away from the communities.

m) There has been a continuous violation of human rights

n) The demand for land to work seldom is given an answer and land is too expensive to buy. When the land is taken away from indigenous groups they feel as strangers in their own land, where land is an essential part of the culture. People are loosing an agricultural and agrarian way of life. What comes to be at stake is the survival of indigenous groups -agricultural and indigenous groups- within a global capitalist system. Along the years the government has given more importance to urban-industrial development than to rural development.

o) They have no political representation.

"Mexico is a country that has a dependency at regional, municipal, and community level. When the marginal social groups become conscious and organized then there is a rupture within this dependency. The State does not allow this fracture because it would break its hegemonic project, this is why it focuses on social control to keep people without conscience and organization, through socioeconomic, political and ideological control" (Samuel Ruiz).

 

Similar problems among the indigenous population occur in other states

1. Indigenous groups in the north of México living in a very important forest area do not get their share but are threatened and are victims of small groups who have decided their fate for the last 30 years.

2. Similarly, in other state, people's lack of knowledge about commercialization and the wood production know-how made wood companies the owners of this resource.

3. In Tabasco, the benefits of being the State which produces a great amount of oil have not reached the small communities. 61% of the indigenous groups living in this region are unemployed and the remaining 31% works in the primary sector. 89 out of 1200 localities have drainage services. Less than 50% of these localities have water in their houses.

4. In Michoacan, another state with significant indigenous population 75% of the localities do not have water, drain, streets, and health services. In some parts 50% of children die before they are 12 years old.

5. Some places in Yucatan show worst welfare figures than Haiti.

6. In Oaxaca four ethnic groups are about to become extinct due to living conditions, illness and migration.

7. 99.1% of the budget of the municipality of San Cristobal de las Casas was spent on infrastructure for this indigenous centre-colonial-touristic city in Chiapas. The remaining .9% was channelled to the communities belonging to this municipality. The indigenous groups do not have a voice and live in a painful silent, sometimes in despair.

 

General conditions in education. The impact of formal schooling

Contents usually do not differ when addressed to indigenous population, besides spanish is taken as the official language. The fact that teachers do not know the language and culture of the indigenous context turns them automatically in cultural agents and devalue the indigenous world.

In face of rather poor learning conditions -multigrade classrooms, non-communication between teacher and student because of different linguistic codes- there tends to be a vertical and authoritarian pedagogic style which fosters individual work as opposed to group work tradition in the communities.

Children and youngsters either tend to identify themselves with the predominant culture or feel rejected and discriminated because they belong to a indigenous group. They either reaffirm themselves or deny themselves. Then comes a process of deterioration of selfvaluation. There is a struggle between legal society and real society.

If spanish is taken as the official language in indigenous contexts dominant behaviours and codes are being valued positively by the school. This tends to isolate indigenous population from their own culture and link them with non-indigenous western values.

Education as it is carried out in rural indigenous communities will help perpetuate inter-ethnic conflicts leading either to unconditional cultural assimilation or to irrational resistance. Both processes do not guarantee a long-term equal and social integration.

Day by day a reorientation of ethnic conscience is taking place among indigenous groups as a political demand which points towards the need to have a greater social participation. The move is towards ethnic reaffirmation, to value their ethnic conditions and to spread the traits that constitute their own cultural personality.